This year I am working with an organization called Campus Crusade for Christ.  I spend my days doing campus ministry in central Wisconsin.  We have a weekly “big group” meeting that students attend during which we present a message These are the notes I used to give the talk on 11/18/10.

We are currently in a series based off a book called How People Grow that investigates what the Bible reveals about personal growth. Last week we took a little break from the series and Ryan talked about our summers. Two weeks ago, Jocelyn introduced the series and talked about our identity in Christ. So we are currently in the second part of the series.

To start tonight, I’d like to share with you about the scariest thing that has ever happened to me. On July 4, 2008, I drove my motorcycle to Ogema, WI to watch fireworks with close friends I hadn’t seen in a while. After the fireworks, I followed one of my friends in his car down a county highway out to a cabin where a bunch of us were going to play some games. As we drove though, three deer ran out in front of my friend. He slammed on his brakes to avoid hitting them and I did the same to avoid running into the back of his car. In an instant I was off the motorcycle and on the highway. My front brakes had locked up and my bike flipped end over end, launching me towards the road at 50 mph. I landed on my shoulder and released a shout of pain as the sudden impact snapped my collar bone. I then started rolling down the highway and as I rolled I caught glimpses of my bike bouncing down the road after me. The rolling transitioned into skidding and I eventually came to a stop. I laid on the blacktop for a while as my friend quickly got out of the car and started asking me if I was alright. Being a man of course, the only logical response to the question “are you alright” is the one that I gave which was, “Yeah I’m good, just give me a second.”

Now the end of that story is kind of funny. But seriously, this was the scariest thing that has ever happened to me and my response was, “Yeah I’m good”? I had just got rolled down the highway like a bowling ball with a 500 pound piece of machinery chasing after me. At the end of a five second window of time, I had rolled down a highway, had my bike bounce into a ditch, broke my collar bone, and I should have been dead. But my response to my friend said, “I’m fine.” The reality of the situation was that I was in a serious state of not being fine.

It’s like if I would walk up here limping while holding crutches and not using them. Which I was going to do by the way, but after my girlfriend Katie tried to teach me how to fake limp, we discovered that I am not talented in this area of life. But if I was hurt, if I did break my ankle or my leg and was in need of crutches, wouldn’t it make sense for me to use them? Would it be a bad thing for me to walk up here on crutches? No, absolutely not. None of you would look down on me for using them if I needed them.

However, a very common criticism of Christianity says just that. People ask, “Isn’t Christianity just a crutch for people who can’t make it on their own? Isn’t Christianity just something people lean on because they aren’t strong enough themselves?”

Ironically and perhaps surprisingly, the answer to that question is yes. That is exactly what Christianity is. (Let’s pray before we start to unpack this.)

“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). As the opening statement of one of his longest and most powerful sermons, Jesus makes this statement. “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” What does that mean? That is one of those statements in the Bible that we read and just sort of move on because it sounds hard to take in. I don’t know about you guys, but when I took tests in school and I would come across a problem that started out:

A ball (with moment of inertia I = (2=5)MR2) rolls without slipping on the inside
surface of a fixed cone, whose tip points downward. The half-angle at the vertex of
the cone is…

And right there I’m thinking, “I’ll come back to that one” and I move onto an easier problem.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” is hard to digest but it is essential if Christians want to grow spiritually. In fact, I would say it is essential to understand and accept in order to become a Christian.

Let’s start by figuring out what poor in spirit actually means. In this verse, the Greek word for poor means having nothing, reduced to begging, like a beggar, totally poor. It’s the picture of a cringing beggar who needs to rely on others for their survival. Not really the most flattering picture right? But Jesus says that people in this condition are blessed. Blessed are those who are like beggars when it comes to spirituality. People who have nothing, who are spiritually bankrupt and have to rely on others for survival.

Now, I know that may sound weird. In your head you may be thinking, “That doesn’t really make sense. Shouldn’t the really righteous and spiritual people be the blessed ones? Blessed be the spiritually rich, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven?” The reality, though, is that no one is “really righteous and spiritual”. Romans 3:10-12 says, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one.” Romans 3:23 says “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” You guys, no one is spiritual! Seriously, when I take an honest look at my life and compare it to what God asks of me I fall dreadfully short of being a spiritual man.

Let’s just look at a few examples. Half the time when I am singing worship I am thinking more about whether I am on key or whether I sound good to the people around me than I am about praising God. Worship is meant to be a way to show my love for God but I can’t even stop thinking about myself for 12 minutes to do that!

Or sometimes when I feel moved to raise my hands in worship, I will peek my eyes open to see if other people are raising their hands to check if it is a “raise your hands” kind of song.

Sometimes, when I pray in groups, I’m listening to how many times people say “um”. This isn’t Comm 101, this is talking to God.

You guys are probably like, “Wow, they let this guy up on stage to give a CRU talk?” Seriously though, I am so so poor in spirit whether I want to admit it or not. I claim to be in relationship with God but I am a horribly dysfunctional member of the relationship. If I treated my girlfriend like I treat God, I would no longer have one. My relational skills with the divine are extremely poor.

Guys, this is exactly why Jesus died on the cross and it is exactly why we need him. Admitting that we are in a state of spiritual poverty is just accepting the facts. It is experiencing the reality of our condition. It’s coming to the end of ourselves and admitting that we are broken, sinful, and have no hope except for God. It’s admitting that we can’t do it without him. These are the basics for the Christian faith. This is the gospel. Jesus came to the earth and died for our sins so that we could be connected with God because we can’t do it on our own. Admitting spiritual poverty is required to become a Christian and on this point is where so many people have Christianity wrong.

Our country has a sad misunderstanding of what the Christian faith is. A widely held belief is that Christianity is a standard of living for people to strive for. Many people, if you were to ask them, “How do you become a Christian?” would give you an answer like, “Start going to church, try to do good things for people, stop swearing” and in saying that they are terribly terribly incorrect. That reduces Christianity to a list of things to do, which, admittedly, makes it easy for us to wrap our minds around. “Oh if I want to go to heaven I just need to do x, y, and z.” We are given formulas like this for college right? If you want to get a good job after college, you need to:

1. Maintain a good GPA
2. Have a good relationship with your professors for referrals
3. Get a good internship
4. Join honor societies and volunteer to beef up your resume

You just need to work hard and do these things to earn a good job after college. This is not Christianity. This is a counterfeit. This view of Christianity breaks my heart because it hinders so many from experiencing what Jesus has done for them and wants to give them. Jesus died to give us a relationship with God. Being a Christian involves three things:

1. Realizing my desperate need for someone to save me from my broken and sinful condition which separates me from God.
2. Trusting in Christ and his sacrifice as the only means to save me from this condition.
3. Trusting Christ as the Lord of my life.

The first step is spiritual poverty. It’s recognizing that I am spiritually bankrupt and in need of God. This is why the answer to the question, “Isn’t Christianity just a crutch for people who can’t make it on their own?” is “yes”. Because it starts with saying, my condition is not one of health. Mark 2:15-17 says:

And as he reclined at a table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him. And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?” And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”

I actually think this is kind of funny. Picture these scribes and Pharisees, they are like, well we don’t actually want to talk to Jesus because he’s intimidating, so let’s ask his disciples behind his back. So they ask them and Jesus overhears it and turns to give them an answer. They probably looked like deer in headlights. “Shoot, he heard us!” Jesus spent much of his ministry opposing Pharisee type people who thought that they were righteous because of what they did. However, their hearts were far from God. Jesus came to call not those who thought they were righteous, but those who know they are sinners. It is then that they realize they are in need of a physician.

Let’s bring this into practical terms by comparing what it looks like to have a sense of spiritual poverty and what it looks like to have a sense of spiritual richness. Although everyone is in a state of spiritual poverty, we can sometimes have the false conception that we are spiritually rich or in a place where we don’t need anything.

Spiritually Rich

• they don’t read their Bible because they don’t think they have anything left to learn
• think they have the power to live the Christian life on their own, independent from God and other people
• feel justified by their moral superiority or thinking they are a generally a good person

A sense of spiritual richness leads people to be stagnant and walled off from God, others, and any sort of growth. If we want to really experience God and grow spiritually, we need to have a sense of spiritual poverty. As you can see from the list above, thinking we are spiritually rich leaves us in a place where we don’t think we need to grow. It’s a proud state. Let’s take a look at an example from a parable Jesus told in Luke 18:9-14:

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”

Who these men trust in for their righteousness yields two tremendously different results. The first trusts in himself. He trusts in how he is morally superior to other men and in how he is religiously superior by his fasting and tithing. He ultimately thanks God for producing this righteous in him, but he is not trusting in God for his justification. He trusts in his righteous lifestyle for his justification.

The second man won’t even look to heaven because of how unworthy he feels. He begs God to be merciful to him and labels himself a sinner. He realizes his condition. Jesus concludes that “this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.” It’s extremely important to realize that one man left the temple condemned by God, and the other left the temple justified. One man is saved, and the other is not. One man is a Christian, and the other isn’t. That is a big deal and it weighs on whether we recognize that we are poor in spirit or if we don’t.

Not only is a realization of spiritual poverty a necessity for saving faith, but as I mentioned earlier, it is instrumental in helping us grow spiritually.
It’s like playing with LEGO. How many of you played with Legos at some point in your life? I was really into Legos and I would spend hours building awesome fortresses. And if you are serious about building awesome fortresses you need one of these…

…the LEGO table! Not only does it give you a convenient height to construct from and your kings a great view of the kingdom they will rule over, but it provides a perfect foundation for building. That is exactly what spiritual poverty does for us as Christians. Recognition of spiritual poverty lays the foundation to have a saving faith and to grow spiritually.

In their book, How People Grow, doctors Henry Cloud and John Townsend give six ways in which spiritual poverty helps us grow spiritually. They say, “Being aware of our incompleteness orients us toward God and his ways, where he awaits us with all we need to grow and repair.” Since I have already introduced you to the awesomeness that is the LEGO table, I’ll continue on the path of explaining everything using LEGO terminology.

1. The first way that spiritual poverty helps us grow. As a LEGO enthusiast, when I look at a blank LEGO table with nothing constructed on it, it makes me want to build something. It’s just looks like it needs something on it and that draws me to it.
   • Spiritual poverty causes us to do the same with ourselves and God. When we sense our impoverished condition, it draws us to the only one who can bring us out of it. And as we accept more and more how broken and needy we are, we give God more and more room to grow us. Personally, when I place how unworthy of God’s love I am next to the obvious amount of love he has shown for me, it draws me closer to him. He shows love to me unconditionally and a god like that is worth following.
2. The second way that spiritual poverty helps us grow. Sometimes, starting a LEGO project can be a bit painful and difficult because the possibilities are endless. Where do I even start? What do I build? Do I build a forest hideaway for my woodsmen? A majestic castle for my knights? It’s so hard to decide. But seeing that blank LEGO table with a pile of unused LEGO pieces next to it is way more painful than the process of building something.
   • Similarly, spiritual poverty helps us to endure the pain of growth.
     Growth is hard but it is the only solution to our brokenness. It’s comfortable to stay in the same state we are in and not grow. But once we get a sense of how broken we are and how far we are from being healthy, it will be a huge motivator for growth. Growth can be painful and difficult, but it is better than the pain of living in the state we are currently in.
3. The third way that spiritual poverty helps us grow. Sure, you can play LEGOs alone, but it is way more fun to have a friend over, build two opposing fortresses and then figure out a bartering system to see how many treasure chests of jewels and gold coins I need to give him for the magical sword of the kings of lore.
   Spiritual poverty keeps us living relationally.
   • Not only does spiritual poverty give us a need for God but it gives us a need for people. God designed us to be relational and his plan for Christians is that we would build each other up in love, helping each other in our struggles and helping each other to grow.
   • The Christian life is not meant to be lived in isolation. If we are to grow in our faith and mature beyond our current struggles, we need other people. We need them to be asking us how we are doing, we need them to support us in hard times and struggles, we need them to show us love.
4. The fourth way that spiritual poverty helps us grow. When you first get into LEGOs, you follow the directions and build what is on the box. At some point though, you are going to see a LEGO table with its generous amount of space and realize that you are in a state LEGO immaturity. You are going to say to yourself, “I want to be more than just a direction follower. I want to be a direction creator!” At which point you will begin your journey towards LEGO maturity.
   • Spiritual poverty helps us enter the deeper life.
   • God intended for us to continually mature in our faith. Spiritual growth is returning to the way God intended for things to be. Getting a feel for our distance from what God intended our lives to look like provokes us to move closer to him and his plan for us. It motivates us to move from immaturity to maturity and to seek a deeper walk of faith.
5. The fifth and sixth way that spiritual poverty helps us grow. As a complex LEGO castle progresses in construction phases, you become aware of what areas still need work. “That’s a great gate to hold off the pirate horde, but the dungeon is definitely sub par for holding prisoners.” And it seems that the work of a LEGO enthusiast has no end. There’s always more to be done.
   • Spiritual poverty both doesn’t allow us to be shallow and it leads us to specific growth areas.
     If we are really recognizing our spiritual poverty, it will push us to go deeper and deeper in our faith and to experience God at a deeper and deeper level. “Ask yourself if you are disconnected, complacent, or bored with your spiritual life. Ask others if you seem that way to them.” If the answer is yes, you may have a sense that you are spiritually rich and as we already covered, no one is spiritually rich, no matter what we may think.
     Along with this, spiritual poverty will show us areas that we need to grow in. As an example from my own life, probably about three and a half years ago I realized that I created a lot of conflict and arguments in the way that I interacted with people. Often my friends and I would argue over petty things and if it turned out that they were wrong about something, I would make sure that they knew. I wasn’t going to let them off the hook easy. It’s something that I realized I needed to change to improve my relationship with others and over time I was able to suppress this bad habit.
   • Three weeks ago though, I saw it rear it’s ugly head back into my life. I was starting to needlessly prove my roommates wrong and make sure that they felt the sting of their incorrectness. When I realized I was doing this again, I went to God and asked him to help me in it and I apologized to my roommates. I then started studying passages in the Bible that teach about a healthy, loving community.

Ok, let’s review what we have gone over so far:

• When Jesus described people who are “poor in spirit” he was talking about people who have a sense of their need, their sin, their incompleteness, and their lack of having it all together. This sense of spiritual poverty drives them towards God, leads them to a saving faith, and lays the foundation for spiritual growth.
• With the help of LEGOs (thank you Ole Kirk Christiensen for starting your company that would later create LEGOs) we discovered that a sense of our spiritual poverty gives us six advantages as we try to grow spiritually.
  1. Spiritual poverty develops a hunger for God.
  2. Spiritual poverty helps us endure the pain of growth.
  3. Spiritual poverty keeps us living relationally.
  4. Spiritual poverty helps us enter the deeper life – pushing us from immaturity to maturity.
  5. It does not allow us to be disconnected, complacent, or bored with our spiritual life as it pushes us to meet with God at deeper levels.
  6. It guides us to specific areas we need to grow in.

Ok great, we know what being poor in spirit is and we know how it helps us, now how do we get it? I think Henry Cloud and John Townsend say it well in their book by saying: Becoming poor in spirit is one of the most unnatural things we can do. It is the opposite of being victorious and having it together. Yet it is our only hope for spiritual growth. Actually, our task is more realizing our poverty than becoming poor, as we are already in need whether we know it or not” (How People Grow 273). They go on to describe five ways in which we can develop an inner sense of our spiritual poverty.

1. Ask God.
   • It seems so simple but makes so much sense. God is the only one who knows how poor in spirit we actually are and He wants us to be closer to him. So why not ask him how to get closer to him?
2. Become an honest person.
   • Namely with yourself. Look at how you may be avoiding pain, denying problems, justifying wrongful actions, or being prideful. See if you have a tendency to present yourself as self sufficient and not needy. Many times the greatest road block to growth is ourselves.
3. Read the teachings in the Bible on the topic.
   • Jesus over and over again addresses both people who are poor in spirit and those who think they have it together and the difference in how he talks to them is radically different. Study these differences.
     Another good example is the prophet Isaiah. In chapter six of Isaiah, he finds himself in the throne room before God and cries out “Woe to me! I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips!” In the presence of God he is made completely aware of his own sin.
4. Get feedback from others.
   • Ask people you trust to help assess your situation. Be vulnerable, open up. Let them help you discover areas in which you may be withholding from God and are trying to be self sufficient.
5. Seek a wholehearted experience of brokenness.
   • Being poor in spirit is not just about accepting the fact that you are poor in spirit. As I said earlier, realizing what a wretch I am and how much God still desires me and loves me is overwhelming. It stirs my emotions and makes me ask, “Why me God? Why do you care about me in the least?” It’s just crazy and is beyond my mind. It must be felt by my heart.

So how can I summarize all of this? How can we wrap this up? If there’s one idea that I want you to remember walking out of here tonight, it’s that, everyone needs the gospel, Christians and non-Christians alike. We need it because we are all in a state of spiritual poverty. Becoming a Christian doesn’t make us whole, complete and perfect. We need the gospel every day, from the first day we accept it to the day we die. We are always in a state of need and we will never be done growing.

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